All the emotions I feel when I attend networking events

Social media week Lagos is around the corner, and I’m at that stage where I feel like I need to hire an interpreter.

Going to networking events can typically be overwhelming. But when you’re hard of hearing and an ambivert, it’s ‘superwhelming’ because you never know if you would hear the right things or whether your extrovert side will show up when you need it.

When I find out there’s a networking event that’s going to build me up

Just what I need. Hashtag: GirlBoss, GoGetter, MakingMoneyMoves, She-E-O

And it’s free

Who paid sessions epp? 😂 Paid sessions look lit tho but my bank account says they are meh

How I sign up excited to build up my career

I’m a girl with a dream and a plan, a mogul in the making #TheyDontKnowWhatsComing

Me wondering whether to bribe one of my friends to sign up so they’d take notes for me

To bribe or not to bribe, that is the question.

But later deciding not to because I want to challenge myself to socialize

Challenges are bread, innit?

But immediately regretting it when I arrive at the venue and see all the unfamiliar faces I don’t want to socialize with

Na me mess up

Meanwhile, this is what my inner extrovert does as my socializing plans fall apart

Now I’m left with my introvert side who didn’t sign up for this

Me during sessions, hearing everything ( someone patting their hair, chewing gum, people talking in the next room, cars honking on third mainland bridge… ) except what the speaker is saying

*Switches to reading body language while trying hard not to zone out.

See also: ‘I for don blow, but I too dey press phone’ book review

When I meet kind and helpful people, patient and share their notes

Not all heroes wear capes

How I get home after spending half my life  hours in Lagos traffic and vowing never to do this again

Tenkiu I’ll do #girlboss from my house

Me a few months later when I hear about another networking event that’s going to build me up

Maybe it would be different.

Spoiler:

It rarely ever is, but life is for living, abi? 😅

Read More: Why I won’t be seeing the Black Panther movie